The Birth of Atom: A Fallout Story
by sineadkfoley
Summary: Radar! Daughter of a British Special Ops has arrived in the Capital Wasteland to finish what her dad started and stop The Master and his Mutants from creating their ideal world by locating every last Atom Bomb and sealing it. Will she destroy Megaton and it's residents for the sake of her future? Not if the Vault Dweller has anything to do with it.
1. Chapter 1

**The Birth of Atom**

**A Fallout 3 Story**

**Chapter One**

**Who started It? **

The Vault Dweller walked right past Radar, a serious looking English girl with a powerful weapon strapped to her back. She was watching the preacher, melt over the bomb the Vault Dweller had deactivated he couldn't remember how many months ago, a bomb that now sat on a plynth and was acting as a centre piece for the city.

"You!" Radar called

The Vault Dweller looked at her,

"You're welcome" He said to her

"For what?" Radar asked

"The purifying of the water, that was me" He said

"Oh I see, job done" She replied sarcastically, she walked up to the preacher and scanned him, "How are you not dead yet or zombified?"

"I am protected child" He told her

"This whole city needs to be buried because of that bomb, whether it's active or not" Radar said

The preacher didn't know how to respond at first,

"The Atom Smasher was a mirical" He said

The Vault Dweller pulled her to one side,

"I've tried, you can't reason with these people, they're brainwashed, the levels are fine, all these people are fine, look at them, a lick of paint..."

"Everything and everyone will glow in the dark" Radar said

The Vault Dweller shook his head,

"Atom Smasher...I don't understand, what is that?"

"Where have you been?" She asked, then she looked at his attire, "Hang on, you were one of those rich bastards that got a free pass to one of the vaults weren't you?"

"I was born in Rivit City" The Vault Dweller told her, "Then moved into the Vault, we were lucky. The overseer took pity on me...until, look things got complicated, what was the Atom Smasher?"

"How old are you?" She asked

"19"

"That explains it" Radar told him...

**2258**,

14-year old Radar was in the living area the bungerlow she lives in with her mother, the large windows in the open plan dwelling look out at the Southbank.

"This can't be real, they made this mistake like 290 years ago" Radar' mother commented

The report was about an Atom Smasher. The walls of the building had been concreted but the floor hadn't and now the radiation generated by the experiments the machine was used for was leaking into the ground,

"Residents that live less than 15 miles are being told to stay exactly where they are until they have been examined by Special Forces, it is unclear as yet just why this was allowed to go on" The Reported said

"The enemy!" Came an angry male voice that made Radar and her mother jump, they turned to find Radar' father standing in the doorway with all kinds of tools in boxes afoot, "They painted the floors the same colour as the damn walls and no one thought to check the place was secure before testing out that machine, they all have specialised biohazard on, there was no way of knowing, this is the new thing now, it's not the only Atom Smasher, there's another being built, you mess about with that thing and never mind black holes you could turn it into a bomb or use the technology behind it to create even worse"

"How do you know all this?" Radar' mother asked him

"I was at an emergency meeting at HQ, they want me on the case, it'll be my job to identify the suspects while a new Atom Smasher is being situated" He told her

"Oh come on! They can't...I thought it was just the Americans that had this machine" Radar said, her voice full of fear,

"Oh come on you're a bright girl, we have plants desguised as factories in this country"

"What's with the tools?" Radar asked

"I'm building us a Vault, the report in the paper was bogus, they want serious money for entry into these Vaults" He told them, shutting the door behind him,

"So pay them, I'm not getting nuked for nobody!" Radar spat

"Read that" Her father said, handing her a load of files

"You stole official government files?" Radar' mother said in question and shock

"Just as well I did, read them!" He snapped, "I'm having a vault built for us...you"

"What about everyone else out there?" Radar asked as he layed out the plans on the table in the kitchen area,

"I don't know, I can only think about us right now" He told them,

"What's about to happen to people isolated within the exclusion zone?" Radar asked

There was a silence,

"What's going to happen to them?" Radar' mother asked

A few days later that question was answered and witnessed by everyone all over the world. A concrete wall was built around the exclusion zone and anyone that wasn't already dead or dying were shot at from above before the entire space was filled in with concrete,

Radar stumbled outside to look out at the river,

"I can't believe they aloud that footage to go out on TV" She breathed, "This is exactly what the enemy want, publicity"

"The public would have argued about the secrets being kept if they hadn't aloud that footage to go out on TV" Her mother sighed,

"It's going to end in a fallout" She said

"Our own Vault' not such a bad idea now is it?" Her mother said

As the months passed and the vault was being built Radar relaxed, she started to think it would all be forgotten but then the unthinkerble happened. Her father was rumbled by a number of suspects, those suspects then played her father and used the computers at the base of the Atom Smasher to send a plant into meltdown and another base to release atomic missiles at the Whitehouse, from within the states. When it was traced back to the UK the American president retalliated without stopping to entertain the possiblity that this was a set up and bombed the UK, Germany then bombed the states, and before they knew it nuclear weapons the public had no clue still existed were primed and detonated.

From the moment the first bomb hit the Whitehouse Radar and her mother, and her aunts and uncles and cousins and neighbours had watched this all unfold from the vault her father had built.

She didn't want to think about the other people outside.

She couldn't.

"Why don't they just stop for one second to think about what actually happened? To realise who started this?" Radar gasped

**2277**

"Who did start all of this?" The Vault Dweller asked

"The Mutants" Radar said


	2. Chapter 2

**Chapter Two**

**Radar' Mission**

"The Mutants are nothing without The Master and I dealt with him too, again you're welcome" The Vault Dweller said,

"Oh my God you know nothing do you? You honestly think they don't have the capacity or the technology to put him back together? We need to disarm, shut down and bury every ounce of nuclear power, weaponary and Atom Bombs and Atom Smasher' in 100ft of concrete before we can deal with the Mutants themselves or get this planet back to any kind of normal existance" Radar said

"You can't do that all on your own, no one can" The Vault Dweller said

"I'm not on my own I have my rifle with me and about 200 frag granades, I also have a flamer and nine tanks of fuel. Some of the vaults were interlinked, the overseer usually had lists; one would warn of experiments being done on the dwellers...dad was smart, building us a vault of our own. I never had any time for people with so much money they didn't know who the hell they were anymore, if they weren't going to let in the working class, the poor, the destitute then they deserved everything Vault Tech and their sister ship sent their way. I'd read the plans for the experiments in the UK based vaults, I didn't actually believe they'd carry any of them out...not even the children were safe"

"How did you get here?" The Vault Dweller asked

**2275**

"It's gone quiet out there" Radar' mother said as she joined Radar in their underground garden

"I'm getting itchy feet, I need space, I'm going insane down here, what're the radiation levels like up there now?" Radar asked, "I need a task, a mission, I need to get out of the vault"

"Your uncle was going to take some readings, he found a rad suit hidden downstairs and a decontamination chamber with a ladder going up and out onto the grounds of Westminster, houses of parliament" She told her

"What does it look like now? Our cameras don't reach that far, the clarity has faded a lot over time" Radar said

"The face, the numbers of the clock and the hands melted but the belle still chimes" Her mother said

This notion tickled her mother quite a bit,

"You know, given everything, the fact that Big Ben is still chiming despite the bombs makes me feel proud. It's pure defiance, he's telling the world his people will carry on whether gual-like and mutated or uderground for a millenia, with or without the tea" Radar said

There was a silence for a moment as they looked at their garden,

"Do you think there are others out there like us? Do you think anyone else built themselves a vault or bunker? A habitat" Her mother asked

"I hope so...I'm tired of waiting though mum, we need to make sure this never happens again. If Uncle decides to move out and go off in search of the other Atom Smashers and weapons and the Mutants then I'm going with him" Radar told her

"I had a feeling you'd say that...were it up to me I'd keep you safe in this vault but that's just me being selfish, you have it in you to do what your dad set out to, what he started. He's out there somewhere I know it. He'd have found himself a refuge somewhere but you're not going out there unprepared. There are mutated animals, creatures that don't know what it's like to be human anymore, raders and savages and angry mobs calling themselves the Angels of Mercy. I see them crawling all over the place above from our cameras. I haven't fired a gun for years but your Uncle has. Give me time, I'll try and pursuade him to train you...and maybe even let you go with him when he leaves for America...if he ever leaves for America"

After a month of arguments Radar' Uncle came into Radar' room while she was looking at pictures of the world above from before the War and just pointed,

"Move it"

Radar smiled and followed her Uncle out of her room, along a corridor, through a red door at the far end and into a lift she didn't know they had. They descended 12 floors and came out into an old, disused underground only the platform now stretched out across the tracks.

There were goggles and weapons, granades and rifles,

"This is nothing" Her Uncle told her, responding to the look on her face, "Start with the Rifle, put the goggles on. Do you need direction?"

"If you weren't here I'd have to figure this out for myself" Radar said, "But seen as you are a little direction would be good"

Her Uncle nodded and showed her the correct and safe way to load and fire the rifle,

To his shock she was a natural but her arms started to burn quite quickly from the weight,

"I can adapt it to your shape and weight" Her Uncle told her

"Now for the granade" She grinned

"This is not a game" He said

"No...be honest, do you think dad' out there somewhere?"

"Let's worry about what we're doing for now shall we and where we need to go" Her Uncle said

To his shock Radar was damn near perfect with her aim, granade in hand but she wanted something that would detonate on impact,

"In the Second World War they did this thing with rats, they packed them with explosives and a fuse that would detonate on impact. My target could move away before the frag granade goes off, they'd have more oportunities to get to me" Radar said

"You're starting to think like a soldier...but that's enough for one day, leave the granades to me, I'll see what I can do.

Over the next few months as Radar worked on her rifle skills her Uncle worked on adapting the frag granades. He spent a lot of time either pouring over theories or mixing chemicals and working on ciruits and fuses in the lab, nearly losing his fingers a few times,

"I'm sorry...I just" Radar began

"No, you're right, you're absolutely right, it'll take two to take out a mutant, one for a radar, the at the moment 4 for those things with the tenticles, we can't give them the chance to get close" Her Uncle said,

"How would you deal with blowflies?" Radar' mother asked, "To save on ammo"

"Use a trigger based elctrified rod, with the rubber at the top and a trigger that only releases power when held down" Radar replied

Her Uncle nodded and gestured in agreement,

"I could work on that" Radar' mother replied, "Let me do something useful, the kids are old enough to look after themselves up here in the living quatres now"

"OK" Radar' Uncle said, then he looked at Radar, "I think you're about ready to take on the flamer" Radar' eyes widened with excitement, "We need to get you suited up first though, you're not using it outside until I've found a way of combining it with the Rad Suit, that's no easy task"

The flamer did a lot of damage but it wasn't practical in anyway, it was heavy even if the fuel canisters weren't. With the rods ready and her rifile catered to her body and weight and a rad suit Radar was ready to go outside for the first time in 17 years.

When that day finally arrived she didn't know what to expect. With a rad suit, scanner in hand, gun strapped to her back and granades attached to personalised straps on her body she was ready for anything.

"The mission is to..." Radar' Uncle began, then he saw Radar' expression, "Take it all in and then forget about what you see"

They were standing before Big Ben,

"Look what they did to him" Radar said

"What everyone in this country has wanted to do to him at some point or another, the survivors aren't angry about it's appearance they're just pissed they never got to be the ones to bring down the government themselves" Her Uncle said

"It's not funny" Radar said

She walked off, he followed,

"Hey, puss! What we need is that way!" He said pointing in the direction of downing street. She wasn't listening, she made her way across the road to look out at the river now void of water. Her Uncle caught up with her, "I need the Vault number for a man in the states, left to his own devices, someone said he used the interiors and the wires to build synths who could do the dangerous part of our jobs for us, that document is in number 10 and it's guarded by raders, I can't do this on my own I need a sniper"

"You've got one...I just want to see our house" She said

"Later, come on before we lose the daylight"

Radar took a moment and looked at her scanner,

"There must be something wrong with this it says there's no radiaton in the immediate area"

Her Uncle took it and did the readings himself. He was surprised to realise she was right, there wasn't any readings for the area,

"There's nothing wrong with the scanner, there's no radiaton in the air at all"

The took off the hoods to their rad suits and were immediately shot at. They took cover behind a car and Radar took out three raders, hiding at different heights across the bridge, she then went up to them and took all they had,

"Maybe we'll find the answers to that question in 10 too" Radar said. She was on it now, taking out preditors and raders and mutated animals with swift ease, alongside her Uncle. As the sun was starting to set they made it onto Downing Street. Expecting to be bombarded by raders they were surprised to find that the raders were in fact already dead, having been murdered by something else. A silver dart in the kneck. Radar' Uncle took one of these darts to do research on for later and along with a vigilent Radar made his way into number 10. They searched the whole place but all they found were dead raders and broken glass littering the carpet. The one body they never found was the Prime Minister' body, "Who do you think did this?"

"That all depends on what we find behind that wall" Her Uncle said, Radar had her uncle back up and tossed a granade at the wall, "That's not going to get us anywhere" He was wrong however, Radar was a technology wiz. The hole in the wall revealed the wires and the mechanism that activated and deactivated the steal wall that hid the notorious red case, "You son of a bitch" He exclaimed as Radar got them access.

There on the table was a letter from Radar' father, the number of the vault and official notes between the UK and the US president,

"I am heading for Vaultech to destroy their computers, they have more power than you think over us. They may be on par if not worse than the Master and his Mutants" Radar read aloud,

"The air...what does that note say?" Her Uncle asked

Radar picked this up,

"The bombs that landed out there weren't nuclear...or rather they would have been but someone switched the stickers. We were hit by the Genericks rather than the nuke', someone state side saw this coming and from there it was a case of damage limitation" She said

"Guess we're going to America then...at least we know the water' safe here, I have a purifier anyway, we'll get our supplies sorted and grab a plane" Her Uncle said

"Oh sure, we're just fly on over there, any fuel for those things will have dried up years ago" Radar said

"We'll think of something" Her Uncle said, "It's dark, we should head back for the Vault"

"If the bombs weren't nukes how did all those people on the Southbank die?" Radar asked

"Damn it" Her Uncle exclaimed

The next day Radar stayed behind in the Vault to explain everything they had seen above ground and all they had learned, while her Unlce took a body and dragged it into the basement of Westminster to find out how they'd died if the bomb that fell wasn't nuclear,

"So we can go back outisde!" Radar' cousin screeched

"No, firstly we don't know how those people died and even if it wasn't at the hands of radiaton, that just one area of the country and the place above is swarming with raders and mutants and creatures, explain all of that" Radar said

Radar' Uncle worked on the body all day, doing experiment after experiment until he could be sure of his results,

"OK so they were all infected with a virus using a formula of somekind. The animals ate the bodies for survival and these mutations are a side affect. I managed to tap into the readings for probes at other sights, using a the terminal in Westminster...there are about three areas of the states almost completely rad free but getting there is going to be tricky.

We can only fly part of the way, the rest will be on foot. We know what we need to do, the sooner we can leave the better" Her Uncle said

"OK but can we go outside?" Radar' cousin asked

"If I can secure an area at least before we go then yes but only for an hour a day and you stay within the perimitre I give you"


	3. Chapter 3

**Chapter Three**

**The Chopper and the Puppy Perk**

Radar and her Uncle sat in the lab of their Vault in London, staring at a map of the area. They used toy cars to represent garages they knew of,

"So what's the plan here?" Radar asked, "Find any kind of fuel and make it work for the non-existant chopper we have waiting for us outside?"

"They're littered all over, whatever's missing from one can be taken from another. As for the fuel..." Her Uncle began, then he stopped, Radar' mother came into the room, "He's alive...or at least he was" He said passing her the note, then looking back at Radar he added, "I'll change what I need to change to get a chopper up in the air"

"It's more the landing I'm concerned about" Radar said

"Do you think I came down in the last shower?" Her Uncle quipped, "I was a mechanic for the Marines, the whole, if you can fix a bike you can fix a...bla, bla. From there I transitioned to terrotorial, I know what I'm doing"

"How do you test for fuel at a petrol station?" Radar' mother asked

"Make a phone call?" Radar said

"Wow" Her Uncle said, "You better have my back girl"

Radar positioned herself on the roof of parliament and took aim for raders and animals in her Uncle' path, three petrol stations and no luck, not one drop of fuel to be had.

As she met her defeated looking Uncle at the bottom of the clock tower a thought came to her mind, she slapped her Uncle on the arm,

"The cars!"

"Talk sense, they're nothing but rusted shells" He said

"Underground car parks, cars that haven't been exposed to the elements, the temperature is at a constant, it can't vaporise the fuel within the tanks" She said

He grinned and slapped her on the arm, she yelped,

"Don't do that to me then" She slapped him back and this went on for a while until they found themselves surrounded by rabid dogs. They were backed up to the door of parliament, "We need a distraction"

Radar dragged her Uncle inside and grabbed a fire axe off the wall, her Uncle then watched, half stunned, half proud as she chopped off the hand of a guard' corpse and wrapped its hand around a frag granade, she then took the pin out and threw it outside, she and her Uncle then ran towards the stairs as the granade went off and the dogs yelped before they died,

"That sorted you out" Radar said

**2277**

"Marry me" The Vault Dweller said

"Shut up" Radar replied

**2275**

Radar and her Uncle found an underground carpark full of expensive cars, they were covered in dust but otherwise appeared to be in a fantastic condition...until she opened the door to one and it came away in her hand,

Radar proceeded to laugh about this for a solid minute before she'd let her uncle test for fuel,

"Oh God it stinks" She exclaimed, "I'll wait for you upstairs"

"This might just work" Her Uncle said getting half a tank full,

"How many do we need for that non-existant chopper?" She asked

Her Uncle just laughed,

Radar left him too it and went out into the stairwell where she heard a dog in distress and wood hitting wood, Radar took her rifle, loaded it and sneaked upstairs.

A group of raders were tormenting a dog,

"You'll do for a sandwich or four" The rader said

Radar took him out first and a fight ensued. Radar was lucky with the first few, they didn't have weapons. The next two did though.

She didn't want to use her granades because she didn't want to kill the dog and there was ammo everywhere She shot the first out of the hand of one and ducked out of sight when the second aimed for her head. The bullet went into the fire alarm, which still worked.

The sound distracted her attacker and got her Uncle' attention, he arrived on the landing the fight was taking place on now as Radar was breaking her still living attacker' arm. She took his gun but then disguarded it,

"Usless...where are the others?" She asked

"Go to hell bitch!"

He went to reach for his friend' weapon and her Uncle shot him dead,

"We need to get out of here, it's too dangerous" Her Uncle said before shooting the alarm, "That noise!"

"We're taking the dog with us"

"We...what?" Her Uncle said

"The dog, pick him up and let's go" She said, then as they creeped down the stairs she added, "I'll carry the fuel tanks"

"That's a lot of ammo right there though" He said,

"It is a lot of ammo" She agreed, as they got outside with the dog they were shot at by raders from two floors up, "Cover me and get ready to run" She said before throwing two grandades, one over the wall to the floor the raders were shooting from and another through the window on the stairwell below it, "Boom, boom baby"

"Oh sh..."

Before either the raders or her Uncle could swear the granades went off and the ammo on two floors of the carpark went up

The noise could be heard from the Vault and it scared the living daylights out of Radar' mother,

"All that ammo!" Her Uncle shouted, upset as they got to safety, he was temporarily deafened,

"You don't have to shout" She said

"What?! Move your lips in an orderly fashion so I can assertain what you're trying to say!"

Radar ignored him and checked out the dog, it had a beautiful coat and had a Battersy collar on it with a computurised button that revealed a message when pressed,

"Puppy Perk" She said

Her Uncle' ears popped and he could hear again,

"What's that?" Her Uncle asked with a shake of the head,

"If this dog dies in battle he'll reappear as a puppy at the entrance to the next nearest dwelling, so we live in a Vault, if he dies he'll appear outside the nearest Vault to his corpse" Radar said

"When did that become a thing?" Her Uncle asked

"A puppy is for life, it's owners life" She said

"What was that noise!?" Radar' mother demanded as Radar and her Uncle returned to the vault that night, then she noticed the dog and backed into the wall, "That thing safe? Who...?"

"The noise...her, she blew up a multistorey car park full of ammo...and admittedly, raders, so it wasn't entirely a bad decsion" Her Uncle replied with a point, "The dog, also her"

"It's a rescue from Battersy by all accounts but it has a Puppy Perk battle dog button, it must have been a mine detection dog in it's previous life, he could be useful" Radar said

"What're we going to call him?" Radar' mother asked

"Dogmeat for all I care" Her Uncle said, then to Radar he added, "Tomorrow we're looking for a chopper"

"OK" She said with a nod and with that she left them to it to show "Dogmeat" around his new dwelling, where he was fawned over by her cousins.

Radar' mother looked at Radar' Uncle,

"How is she doing out there?" She asked

"Her sarcasm knows no bounds...but neither does her skill, she thinks fast and responds to her surroundings quickly and effeciently but then look at her dad" Her Uncle said

The next day Radar, her Uncle and Dogmeat set out at first light to search for a chopper they could work on. It wasn't until 1 in the afternoon they finally found what they were looking for.

There in the playground of a prep school within an overgrown woodland was a black ops chopper,

"Littered all over the place these things you said" Radar commented as they walked towards it with caution,

"Shut up" Her Uncle said

"We live on the Southbank"

"Shut up"

"This is Dulwich Prep"

"Shut up"

Radar pretended to try and lift the chopper and then looked at her Uncle,

"I need help, there's just no way I can carry this thing on my own"

"You're exhausting" Her Uncle said, Dogmeat put his paws on his legs and barked, "Oh who asked you?"

Dogmeat jumped down and peed on his shoe before padding over to Radar for appoval,

"Good Dogmeat" She grinned before giving him a treat

Her Uncle shook his head,

"I was being sarcastic about the name" He said, making his way over to the chopper to inspect it,

"The tag has registered it now" Radar replied, "How's the chopper looking?"

"Do you know it's not in bad nick actually, I could get this to work in a few days tops" He said

"There aren't any bodies around" Radar noticed, Dogmeat started pawing the ground and barked, "There are vaults in the area?" Dogmeat barked, "Think we should get word out about it being safe outside now?" Radar asked

"It's not though is it? Not while those bombs and smashers and power stations are exposed" Her Uncle said, "Trust me, they're safer underground for now"

A week later the chopper was ready, Radar was nervous though. Up until now, in her mind this was all make-believe, she didn't actually think her Uncle would come good on his word about them going to america and helping her dad to nutralise a world scale warzone.

She remembered everything she ever saw as a child of a special ops officer and sniper, every game she'd played, that actually turned out to be a practice run for attacks, his approach to problem solving and technology, their benefits and hinderences,

With Dogmeat and their supplies in the back of the chopper Radar and her Uncle climbed into the front and for a minute they just sat and looked at the controls before them,

"You know how to fly one of these things right?" Radar asked

"Uh..." He said

"Nope!" Radar responded, making to climb out but her Uncle grabbed her back in,

"Come on, it goes up it comes down, how hard can it be really?" He said

It was Dogmeat' turn to try and bolt but Radar looked at him,

"I don't think so Mr, I'm going to hell and you're going with me" She told him

Dogmeat whined and pretended to hide as Radar' Uncle got them up in the air.

Were anyone below and had looked up they would have run for their lives but by the time they reached the Atlantic he seemed to have the hang of it,

"Where are we heading?" Radar asked, clinging to everything, "Like, where?"

"The Capital Wasteland, Megaton is the nearest settlement to loners Vault" Her Uncle said, "From there we'll head over to Vault Tech and follow your father' trail"

"If we haven't run out of fuel before then" Radar said

They seemed to be making progress until a missile came their way,

They were being shot at by two Mutants patrolling the wasteland. They lost a propeller and spiralled, at one point Radar' Uncle was knocked out, forcing Radar to grab the stick and manipulate a safe landing.

She checked her Uncle over and then looked at Dogmeat, she unclipped herself and got out, then called Dogmeat to her,

She then took out the two Mutants with frag granades before pulling her Uncle out of the chopper, she scanned him with her Pitboy, something her father had left for her at number 10, and then gave him a stimpack,

"You'll have to sort yourself out now" She told him with a kiss on the forehead. She gathered supplies and used the wheels of a busted car and a broken fence and rope to fashion a trolly, she then pulled in the direction she hoped was the right one going by the map on her pitboy, "Come on Dogmeat, let's go, he'll be fine but we can't wait around for him"

Dogmeat barked and followed obediently.


	4. Chapter 4

**Chapter Four**

**The Loner' Vault**

**2277**,

"Three long arse days and nights later, no way of contacting anyone back home, I arrived here and this right here is a lost cause so I'll be making my way over to the Loner' Vault now, nice to meet you, good luck in the afterlife" Radar said

"Woe, woe hey! You can't just blow us up!" The Vault Dweller said

"Well he's not moving from that bomb, how am I supposed to get around it tell me?" Radar said in question, "You reckon you're a smart boy, in fact with all the "You're welcomes" you've been firing around you seem to think you're it round here, I answered your question, I was meerly giving you a chance to save yourself but if you won't see sense you're no use to me"

Dogmeat had just joined Radar and was sniffing the Vault Dweller,

"If I let you blow up Megaton..." He began

Dogmeat gave her a look to say he liked this boy so Radar sighed,

"I want to bury that bomb! Either this city and it's occupants go to hell with it, they move out of my damn way or I take that stupid bomb and move it into a giant hole and the third option is out right now, I've been here three days and that idiot hasn't left that bomb for one second!" Radar scolded

The Vault Dweller felt stupid now,

"Oh...you want to move the bomb out of here" He said

"At last" She said

Dogmeat gave a sound as if to say "You're slow"

"That dog of yours has an attitude" He said with a point

"He's called Dogmeat, my Uncle' fault, he has the Puppy Perk because his last owner was a soldier"

"I had a Dogmeat...but I didn't have a Puppy Perk" The Vault Dweller said

Dogmeat put his paws on his legs and then jumped down and barked with a look at Radar,

"No Dogmeat, he isn't a soldier" Radar said, then to the Vault Dweller she added, "I have the Animal Friend Perk, it's supposed to prevent animal attack but mine is faulty, I can however understand the emotion of a pack animal or my own animal...he has some interesting dreams" Dogmeat gave her an embarrassed look, which made the Vault Dwellwer laugh,

"I didn't level up fast enough to get the Puppy Perk...he was got a mutant"

"Had you been the child of a soldier you would have, but still, you got to a fairly substantial XP by the time you cleansed that water with your father, do you want to come with me? Two human heads would be better than one, maybe we could find a way to get that man from his precious Atom Bomb yet"

The Vault Dweller smiled,

"Sure"

"I'm not marrying you" She said

"Yet" He grinned, she pulled the rifle out on him, "Message recieved" he said with a bite of the lip,

"Move your butt Vault Dweller" She called back

"I have a name" He replied

Radar, the Vault Dweller and Dogmeat made their way to the school a short distance from Megaton. They found a route in and climbed over dead raders littering the corridors. Radar seemed to know where she needed to go,

"I found a basement and wires and rad roaches but I didn't find an entrance to a Vault" The Vault Dweller said

"You were looking in the wrong place" Radar said before entering a classroom, "It'd be rude of me not to ask you for your name now"

"It's Matt" He said

"There's something creepy about a post War classroom and it's books and pencils still lying about the place" Radar said

"Never really thought about it" Matt said honestly, "I had one thing on my mind the last time I was here, find caps to barter with, weapons and my father"

"A school? You went to a school to find money...and weapons?" Radar asked astonished, "A school that has money? Wow, thats a novelty, wouldn't get that in the UK"

"Come on it can't have been that bad"

"It's free to send your child there but with all the tests they have year in year out you're looking at 200 caps a year for revision books and test papers, donations are also expected for tissue, for soap, to buy the food, to eat said food, for toys, for gym equipment, for teachers wages even, trips to the library will cost the parent and God help you if they went on a mandatory trip to another country" Radar said,

All this time she was working on the black board, trying to find the swtich to reveal a hidden staircase. Matt stood back in shock and Dogmeat growled,

"What's he sencing?" He asked Radar

"Electricity, a change in frequency, story goes this loner built synths from the walls and wires but if Vault Tech were watching they took a long time to manipulate the frequency to turn them against the loner. Something changed and only recently, be ready" Radar said,

They descended the staircase to an elevator shaft.

Radar called up the elevator to find two synths. They were slow to activate but they were activating. Dogmeat looked up and barked,

Radar fired a granade over the metal wall so it bounced and caused part of the ceiling to cave in on the synths as they fired beams at her and Matt,

Matt then watched in shock as she climbed the wall and down before ripping the wires out of the now trapped synths and shut them down,

"You're crazy do you know that?!" Matt exclaimed

Radar put the wires in a pocket in her combats,

"These could come in handy" Radar said, then to Matt she added, "What're you standing there for climb over?"

Matt did as he was told and then activated the elevator, Radar then stopped it,

"Do you have a death wish?" She said in question, "Check the way is clear first"

He and Radar got down on the ground to pier over and at the bottom of the shaft,

Waiting for them in a massive clearing were two more synths.

Radar and Matt quietly shifted back,

"How're we getting past them?" Matt said, "I cleared out Vault Tech"

"You say "You're welcome" one more time" Radar threatened, "Clearly they have more or people working undercover, we can't use these guns that's for sure"

Dogmeat pawed at Radar to get Radar' attention, he scratched the synth,

"Oh your dog is a genus" Matt said,

"We can use their guns, and hopefully the synths won't fire back, they'll think there's something wrong with these two, their wiring, whoever's controlling them down there will just let them destroy each other"

"They have to think we're toast already...whatever that is"

Radar just looked at him

"You really did come down in the last shower didn't you?"

If she were honest Radar thought this a long shot but she and Matt retrieved the guns, used the synths behind them to hide, took aim and shot at the synths below until they both blew apart,

"Woe! That's awesome!"

Radar took the elevator down to the bottom, and the clearing. She opened the door, synth gun still in hand and panned it round, Matt stood with his back to her and did the same while Dogmeat sniffed at the bottom of three doors available to them,

He growled and pawed at the last one,

"Hmm, we need to find the Loner, if he's still alive he'll be hiding and if we can get to the overseer' office and hack into the terminal there we'll be able to find anyone else living in the vault" Radar said, she chose the door furthest away but the pitboy wouldn't work, "It's not American, you do it"

Matt used his pitboy to open the door then closed it again once they were in the corridor beyond it.

The Vault walls were rust coloured and the ceiling was low, there were windows looking in on rooms with empty pods in them.

Radar caught sight of a red dot moving across the wall, coming from a window on the otherside and she brought Matt down to the floor,

"Guards" She said quietly

"Why's this set out like a normal vault if only one person was meant to live here?" He said

"He'd have gotten suspicious if there wasn't more than one communal area or sleeping space" She replied, "Now how are we getting past that?" She asked as to her great anoyance the guard marched out of the room to the left of them

Radar rolled onto Matt and ducked as the guard shot in her direction,

"You will stand down!" It called,

"Door! Door! Door!" She yelled shooting at the guard and shoving Matt into the door leading to the pods,

"How's that going to help? And Ouch!" He yelled

Radar moved out of the way and shoved Matt to safety as the guard shot again and the door opened, she then grabbed Matt into the room and used him to shut the door to the room with the pods in it, they then slumped to the floor.

Radar took a few seconds and then shot the mechanism on the wall left of the door to activate the bullet and bomb proof window guard,

"Right let's think about this here" Radar said getting up off the floor, "You're welcome by the way" She added before smiling at Matt,

Matt laughed and coughed a little before accepting her help to get up off the floor,

"I see if I stay with you I'm in for a few bruises"

"To your body too" She said, then as he shook his head she added, "OK, so, we have three, possibly four rooms in this section of the vault, three sections that interlink most likely so make that 12 rooms, each room with 5 guards, 60 guards on each floor, they could be anywhere. There should be a terminal around here somewhere that we can hack. Shut the guards down each level so we can do a propper search"

"What about the synths?"

"We use the guards armour to trick them" Radar said

"Or make them work for us" Matt said

"Sure, it'd have to be done via each individual pod so if we do that to the five in here, we'll have five on this floor on our side if we and they are in the same space" Radar said

Matt walked over to the terminal at the end of the room,

"This being here makes no sense" He commented as he tried to hack the system,

"It makes perfect sence, if the Loner realised he was being set up he'd have bolted and taken his chances with the radiaton outside, by seeing these terminals and these pods and living spaces he'd feel comforted and believe there'd be more, he was the first to arrive. They could even have had decoys stand in, pretending to be Vault Dwellers, the Vaults where the experiments were being held were interlinked so they could escape, then they'd have set off bombs to cave in entrances so they couldn't be followed back to Vault Tech HQ"

"I didn't see...right, more than one HQ, I'm in, there are two options here"

"I can read" She replied, "Show me the map to the overseer' office real quick" Matt made this appear on the screen of his pit boy, "OK so you can either make the guards in one area work for us at a time or send them back to their pods and if you do that they will kill us" Matt nodded his head, "We need to be in that corridor Dogmeat was pawing at...hang on, where is Dogmeat?"

Dogmeat came out of a side room with a box in his mouth, he dropped this at their feet to reveal a number of stealth boys,

"Oh you cleaver dog" Matt said, taking one, "Two each will get us safely to the overseers office"

"What about Dogmeat? They won't work for an animal, they'll attack him" Radar asked concerned

"He survived that out there, something tells me this pup can handle his own affairs" Matt said

Matt was right about Dogmeat, when confronted by a guard he bit it's foot to make it fall and then clawed and pawed at it until it's head came off or the wires were exposed and he ripped them out with his teeth so it couldn't get up again.

He was right about the number of stealth boys they'd need too but they did end up in a battle against guards that were from another floor.

Dogmeat aided where he could.

One floor above the overseer' office Dogmeat pulled at some wires and shut off all power to that floor, then using Matt' pitboy they were able to navigate around the guards not on their side and down to the floor of the overseer' office.

They snuck around and into the overseer' office, shutting the door behind them and blacking out the window. Then while Matt got to work on the terminal Radar took a look around the place, ammo stempacks, anything that might help them,

Just as Radar turned from rummaging through a desk Matt sat back and sighed,

"I've been locked out of the terminal"

Radar went over to it,

"You need a password" She said,

All of a sudden they heard two male voices outside and Dogmeat crept up to the door, sniffed, growled and backed up.

As the door opened Radar and Matt had their rifles aimed but she quickly lowered hers and held out her hand to stop Matt,

"You left me!" It was her Uncle and her father. He broke into a grin, "I am so frickin proud of you!" He grabbed her for a hug and then looked at Dogmeat with suspicion, "Dogmeat" Then he smiled, "Good dog"

Dogmeat turned his nose up at him and Radar' father laughed,

"He's something else alright" Her father said, then to Radar he added, "So are you"

They shared a hug and she grinned,

"I taught Dogmeat a new trick you wanna see it?" Radar asked'

"Impress me" Her Uncle said

Radar turned on some music and danced with Dogmeat,

Matt fell about laughing,

"Boom, boom, boom, let me here you say "Way-oh""

Radar stopped the music and Dogmeat jumped down, she gave him and treat and he sat down,

"We're locked out of the terminal, we were trying to find the loner" Radar said seriously

"I have the password for it but if you didn't see him and we didn't it can only mean one thing"

"Vault Tech has him" Matt nodded


	5. Chapter 5

**Chapter Five**

**An Agreement and an Unexpected Delivery**

Radar' father eyeballed Matt for a second,

"Who're you?" He asked

"The Vault Dweller, Matt...you're welcome" Radar said

Matt shook his head,

"I helped my father purify the water all over the capital wasteland" Matt said

"Just the capital wasteland?" Radar' father said in question,"That was big of you"

"Oh my God, give me a chance it's not like we can reach the other countries affected by the War you started!"

"The War we started?!" Radar' father exclaimed, "I think you'll find those mutants started off in your sespit not ours"

"OK look, turning on each other is not going to solve anything, why are you sniffing around our girl?" Radar' Uncle asked

"I'm not sniffing around anything...much, I thought she wanted to blow up Megaton, in reality she wants to move the bomb I decactivated..." He began

"We're welcome" Radar said

"Would you stop doing that? Please?" Matt asked her, "She wants to move it into a deep hole full of concrete and blow it up but since this all started there's a group of people called Atom; that praise the bomb, they praise the notion of parting the atoms, they're insane and they never leave it's side"

"He was doing this long before Matt here escaped the Vault he grew up in, he has that many radio waves buzzing around him you could pick up Heart Radio and yet he's not zombified, he appears very much alive and coherent...well apart from the crap he's sprouting about the bomb being the new massiah" Radar said

"Sounds like a synth...oh you know what's happened" Her father said

"Vault Tech observed the Loner, turned his creations against him, then "Saved him" and used his skills to build a preacher, they programmed him, I'll bet they plan to put one in every settlement and then infiltrate the Vaults they didn't do experiments in, which let's face it can't be many" Radar realised

"The people of Megaton are doomed to become guals and mutants if that's the case" Matt said, "No! We can't kill all those people we can't! We'll find a way around it"

"You know it's funny, the one thing you didn't pick up on, or maybe you did and simply ignored it. You lived in Megaton, what's stopping you from becoming one of them? If you did you know we'd have to kill you too" Radar said

"I have a place there, I've slept there a few times" Matt said, panicked, "I'm fine! I'm gonna be fine, what about you? Three days you said you've been there"

His concern for his new found frien-emy was genuine and touched Radar a little. They shared a look that wasn't lost on her father or her Uncle. Radar' Uncle knew a potential attraction when it stared him in the face.

"I'm wearing a rad suit" Radar said,

"Pull up your big boy knickers, if she means that much to you I'll find a way to removed any and all radiation you've been exposed to up until now" Her Uncle said to Matt

"We met an hour ago" Radar said, "I'm not marrying the man"

"Yet" Matt grinned, Radar' father pulled his gun out on him, "Message received"

"That's what I thought" Radar' father said with a nod

"For a price" Radar' Uncle finished

"What kind of price?" Matt asked

"Prove you're serious about putting things right, you help us deactivate and bury anything to do with the nukes and Atom and Vault Tech and we'll help you and your father purify the water for every country screwed over by them" Radar' Uncle said

"Alright" He said with a nod,

"What's the next plan of attack?" Radar asked

"I couldn't find Vault Tech HQ 2 but with this password we can, we sneak in and steal their plans and find out where the loner is being held" Radar' father told her

Radar watched her father work on the terminal, using the password while Radar' Uncle and Matt secured the area around their only exit out of the vault now alonside Dogmeat.

"So what's your name?" Matt asked him

"What do I look like?" He replied unfairly

"A leprechaun" Matt told him with great sarcasm

Radar' Uncle laughed,

"You're going to be fine kid"

"Does Radar like...you know...have anyone special?" Matt asked

"You only met her an hour ago" Her Uncle said

"She's the only girl I've met not impressed by me, I like it...I want her to like me, I mean damn, would it kill her to pay me a compliment?" Matt rambled

"Yes and now you sound desperate, that's never a good look. Just be yourself" Her Uncle said

"Uh..."

"On second thought, we want to get out of this alive. I have a few rules for you, my name is Craig, her father' name is Podray, he's a special ops and ex power trooper"

"Crap"

"We will snap you in half if you so much as breathe in the wrong direction" Craig said, "Radar can take care of herself but you better make damn sure you have her back or we will put a bullet in yours, one other thing, if for some reason you feel yourself falling for her bring yourself into check immediately and concentrate on the task at hand, you do what needs to be done and then you can swap notes, understood? There is no place in a Warzone for a soldier who is emotional. Where I come from we so much as catch a wiff of a relationship or hook up both soldiers are dismissed immediately. It puts everyone else in jepody because in that second they're only thinking of each other" He continued

"I understand sir" Matt said with respect

"Good! Now, have you done anything in terms of army related missions?" Craig asked

"Only in simulation and it had a default in it, if I'd been shot fatally in the simulation I would have died outside it" Matt said

"Well, you've made it this far"

At that moment Radar and her father arrived,

"This looks cosy" Podray said

"He called me a leprachaun" Craig said

"Had many dealings with leprachauns have you?" Podray asked as Radar gave a look to say she could see it

"It's the hair...what's left of it anyway" Radar said

Matt laughed

"We know where we're going now"

Above the Vault Radar, Matt, Craig and Podray took in the map Podray layed out across the bonnet of a bombed out car,

You could see about 12 vaults, all interlinked and subways that lead to the same place,

"That's the Nuka Cola plant" Matt said, "Cleared that out too or what's above it at least"

"We're welcome" Radar said

"Give me a break!" Matt said

"Where would you like it? The arm, the kneck?" She then eyed his trouser reigon, "The "Holiday Zone?" Matt gulped, "OK look, I'm not going to deny that, that could help us out here but the entrance to this HQ won't be in or around the Nuka Cola plant...just to be clear it didn't honestly have radiation in it did it?"

"Not before the War, Nuka meant ultimate power, we used it to power our cars" Matt said. Without delay Radar, Dogmeat, Craig and Podray backed away from the car, "It's safe"

"Said the flea parked on the back of a black rat at the height of the plague epademic" Radar replied, "What is wrong with you people?" She asked as she scanned the car, her Uncle, her dog and then her father,

"Wow, I come last?" Podray asked

"I see where she gets it from now" Matt said, "I was talking about the cola, Nuka Cola made fuel for cars, the only one's who'd have one had no sense of smell and those without didn't have any business in areas where these cars were driven anyhow"

"You know this how?" Radar asked him

"I read about it in the library" Matt said stiffly

"You read?" Podray asked

"You people are exhausting" He exclaimed until he saw the look Radar gave him. He knew she was playing but she had a power over him he couldn't quite understand, "You're going to be the death of me"

"You're my wind up toy" Radar grinned

"You can leave him in the desplay case for now" Craig said,

"We need to get Minors Vault, if we look at this propperly, and their inner map to find the entrance to Vault Tech HQ 2. If we find the entrance to the interlinking tunnel we can estimate a distance of 2-10 miles each way to find the entrance" Radar said

"She's right" Matt said looking at the map too, "But that's going to take at least a month to get there"

"Only if we walk it" Podray said

"How else are we going to get there then?" Matt asked

To Matt' shock Podray and Craig found a deserted garage and made use of scrap metal, a saw and wood to build a car,

Radar then used her mechanic skills to build an engine before Matt then helped her and Craig utilise the fuel she had rescued from the chopper for the tank. It wasn't the most comfortable ride in the world but it was better than walking,

"We have to stop" Matt complained after about an hour, "I have splinters in my butt"

"Well when you spot an upolstery shop holla" Podray called back

"This is the worst idea" Matt complained

"I think it's a brilliant idea the execution of it could use a little finess though I'll grant you" Radar said

"How are you not uncomfortable?" He asked

"I was trained by the best, mind over matter. You'd be amazed, I'll give you an example. Middle of winter, grant you this is before the fallout. Soldiers or potential soldiers were told to stand in a freezing lake for as long as possible, no matter what the condition of the weather or the terrane because there may come a time where they have to sit in wait as they observe the enemy and this is all they have around them. They could be there for an hour, a day, two days even. The big burly men were the first to fall apart but the ones no one thought could make it stuck it out unitl the commander' blew the whistle. How did they do it? They thought about the task at hand and the end result and the body did the rest"

"Wow..." Was all he could manage,

"It's a lot, we get it" Podray said

After three days in the makeshift car, two nights in the basements of old buildings, taking it in turns to keep watch and shoot any rogue robots before harvesting parts and killing raders trying to steal from them they heard the frigthened cries of a woman in labour.

At first she was unwilling to accept their help, in fact she pulled a gun out on them as they aproached her house,

"I thought someone was trying to kill you, the way you're carrying on" Matt said eying the woman now kneeling on the floor,

"Someone is trying to kill me!" She screeched

"Would you like some help?" Podray asked

"What do you think!?" She screamed

"Radar" Craig said

"Don't look at me!" She snapped

"You have the same bits" Craig said

"Seriously?" Radar said

Radar knew what to do, she'd delivered her cousin, if it meant a safe place to sleep that night then...

"You could take me for a drink first" The woman said, trying to lighten up,

"Shut up and push" She said

"Oh my God!" Matt said in shock

"You're bedside manor is atrocious" The woman said

"You want this thing out of you or not?" Radar said

The baby had some difficulties after being born but Radar took charge and got her breathing and crying, she took the baby' weight and gave her to her greatful mother,

"I...I didn't think I could love someone this much" She cried, "She's perfect"

"How come you're on your own?" Podray asked a few miutes later, all sitting around the crappy living room,

"We were attacked by mutants, they captured my husband, they didn't seem to want me" She told them

"We believe they're working for Vault Tech, if you have a picture of him, a discription we can try and find him, bring him back to you" Matt said

"He's probably dead by now but thank you" The woman said, "You're all welcome to stay until sunrise"

"What will you do now?" Craig asked, "You can't stay here"

"Where else can I go?" The woman asked

"Would you concider a move to London?" Craig asked

"UK? Weren't you nuked too?" She asked

"Not quite" Craig said

This surprised Matt.

Later that night Matt was worried when he woke to find that Radar wasn't there. Instead she was outside looking at a solitary flower,

"I was starting to miss home...that stupid vault. You tell anyone I'll cap you"

"You were amazing tonight" Matt said sitting next to her, "A little harsh at times"

"Take the emotion out of the task, that's what I was brought up with...I was scared for the child, I'm scared for the mother too if I'm honest" Radar said

"I don't want to try" He said

"You don't want to try what?" Radar asked but he left

"Not to fall in love with you" He said to himself as he shut the back door behind him


	6. Chapter 6

**Chapter Six**

**Nuka Vault Tech and the Robot**

Shortly after noon the next day Radar, Matt, Craig, Podray and Dogmeat reached the entrance to Minor' Vault. Only one thing could reveal this place to actually be a vault and that was the metal fence around the perimeter and the Vault Tech logo on the top.

"Right, let's work out the layout and possible entrances to Nuka Vault Teck" Radar said

At that moment they all heard a man' voice calling for help,

"That's coming from the shaft" Matt said listening carefully

They all got on their fronts and crawled towards the shaft. When Craig hung his torch over the edge it was shot at.

"We need to see what's down there" Craig said

"What was this vault used for?" Radar asked

Before anyone could even look at the information they had they were shot at by a man in black and red, hiding in the trees nearby,

Podray was impressed by how quickly Radar reacted and took this man out, she then ran in that direction. Matt and Dogmeat immediately went into protector mode and joined her but just as Podray and Craig stood the ground went from under them.

Radar spared a glance and Matt hesitated,

"Leave them, this one's our route in, we do what we need to and then we can entertain the possiblility of a rescue if need be" Radar called, she took a strap from the body, the weapons he had and the ammo before reviewing the information on the strap, "Take his uniform and put it on"

"OK" He said but then did nothing,

"What're you waiting for?" Radar asked him, putting the strap on his arm, "You are my route into Nuka Vault Tech, this thing is connected to the pulse like a fitbit"

"I don't want to get changed in front of you" Matt said

"Dogmeat licks himself in front of me, you can get changed in front of me" Radar said

"I really can't" Matt said, Radar shook her head and went back to the fence to see if she could spy her father and her Uncle. Dogmeat stared at Matt as he changed into the uniform, "Stop judging me"

Dogmeat barked,

Podray and Craig were clinging to the other side of the mining lift, a tight space indeed,

"I do not need to tell you how bad this situation is right now do I?" Podray said

"We need more space" Craig said

Right now the gap between the miners lift atop of the shaft and the ground was too far for either man to bridge but as the lift went down the gap got narrower and narrower and if they'd gone up and shimmied round they'd be shot at by the robot at the bottom,

"How big a drop would you say that is?" Podray asked

"About 80 feet" Craig said

"Ah bull!" Podray responded

"Take four of these steps per you or me...oh that's only 14 feet at least, whoever is on the top level becomes radiated and either mutates or becomes a gual, they then work their way down" Craig realised

"Hey!" Radar was calling

"What're you still doing here?!" Podray asked

"Get situated and I'll get you out!" Radar called and with that she was gone

"You've done well" Podray said to Craig

"All you" Craig said, "Granade?" He asked

Podray nodded and they climbed to the top and threw a frag granade each to the bottom of the shaft to blow up the robot and cave in the shaft before shimmying across and making their way down the miner' lift.

Radar moved Matt over to a puddle,

"What're you doing?" Matt asked

"I want you to look yourself in the eye so you realise how dumb that move back there was, you wasted prescious time, even if it did give me a chance to make sure dad and my Uncle were alive, if you need to be naked on a mission be naked, alright, I've said my piece now lets go" She told him seriously

Radar and Matt followed the signal on the strap on Matt' arm and the map on his pitboy to find the entrance to Nuka Vault Tech,

Dogmeat not far behind,

For a moment they hid behind a wall,

"What's the plan?" Matt asked

"We get me a uniform" Radar said, "My first thought was that you get us in and I sneak past but how will you know how to find me? If I can't get a uniform I need a strap at the very least but I don't see any women and that is gender registered"

"Oh I just had the best idea" Matt exclaimed,

They looked at Dogmeat

Matt the sneaked round the perimeter to where a male guard was standing, he slid down by the wall, took a rock, knocked him out and took his strap from him. He then took his uiform and raced back to where Radar and Dogmeat were waiting.

To Matt' shock Radar could care less, she stripped down and changed within seconds, then reattached her specialised straps with ammo, gun and frag granades while he put the strap onto Dogmeat' leg.

"OK Dogmeat, we're here for two things, that lady' husband and any clues as to the whereabouts of the Loner Vault Dweller" Radar told him, Dogmeat stood to attention and snuffled at a scarf Radar gave him, "Find the lady' husband Dogmeat"

Dogmeat barked and started to pad around. Once Radar and Matt were inside Nuka Vault Tech he lead them around the building, hiding in certain places while Radar took out staff with her precision rifle, Matt keeping back and watch for threats to Radar and Dogmeat.

He took out several turrets that shot at Radar for her lack of strap while Radar took out the one Matt had taken the strap from.

Pretty soon a gun battle was in full swing and at one point Radar got shot in the leg,

"Radar!" Matt wailed,

"God damn it!" She screached

Dogmeat got mad as she repositioned herself and he ripped her attacker appart to aid her before Matt could get the last shot in. Meanwhile from this position she took out the last turret on this level.

Once all the Vault Tech staff from this level were lying dead about them Radar took a knife and prised the bullet out of the wound in her leg before grabbing a stempack and injecting it.

When she could get up again she gave the man that shot her a kick for good measure and then took his weapons and pass to the documents office.

Once again Radar gave Dogmeat the scarf to smell and off he went again with a bark.

Radar and Matt followed Dogmeat up to a door at the far end where he got distressed and started to claw at the door and bark,

Radar nodded for Matt to open the door and there on the other side of it was the body of the lady' husband.

"They removed his voice box" Matt said on closer inspection

"For the synths" Radar said, giving Dogmeat a treat and comforting him to make him think this a game, "Good boy" He stood to attention once more, "OK now we need to find something else. Any trace of the Loner" Radar gave Dogmeat a bit of cloth she'd taken from the first vault, "Was he here?"

Dogmeat snuffled at the cloth and barked, then ran off. Radar and Matt followed.

Matt was worried, he didn't think Radar had twigged the similarities between the voice of the lady' husband, the robot and the Atom Preacher. The idea that innocent voices were being removed and used to do bad things was more terrifying to him than the current task at hand.

"I need to get out of this country" He said to himself, "This is too much"

Meanwhile Podray and Craig had just cleared the area at the bottom of the miners lift of rubble and looted weapons from the mutants and stopped the robot from reactivating.

Podray found the voice box and two blue eyes,

"Those twisted sons of bitches" Podray said, "They're gaining trust by using voices of people they knew but the skin of a stranger to fall for this Atom crap, harvesting body parts"

"The Mutants harvest the body parts, we know how the robot trapped people now, anyone with a pitboy could scan the area after hearing the cries for help, the eyes of vault dwellers or people in the surrounding areas for a certain number of miles will be on the files. This man finds a planted Pitboy, he see that this is a local in distress and comes down here to help, where he's then met by Mutants, they have a new voice box for their Synths" Craig said

"We thought we had problems" Podray said

Just by the main entrance to the vault Podray and Craig find a safe and a terminal. This terminal reveals the locations of the guals and terrified residents,

"OK how do we know their residents and not Synths?" Podray pondered

"The scanners are picking up on a heartbeat for the guals or synths" Craig said with a point, "We have to help them"

"The first thing we need to do is shut down the turrets...there doesn't appear to be any guards or guard pods around though so that's a good thing" Podray said

"You know why? With the first lot becoming mutants they don't need them do they?" Craig said,

"You're right...what's in that safe?" Podray asked

"Two stealth boys" Craig grinned

"Ammiture" Podray said turning his nose up

"More for me" Craig said unoffended

"Gimmie" Podray responded, grabbing one

Dogmeat located an old scent to the documents room and once they were in there they found a robot prototype, once they had sealed themselves into the room Radar pushed the prototype over,

"I'm starting to regret everything" Matt exclaimed

Radar looked at him,

"What're you talking about?" She asked

"Purifying the water, the residents that aren't working for Vault Tech and the mutants are being sucked into a false sense of security, I'm starting to think they're better off dead. All this time I thought the enemy was abroad but it's right here!" Matt said full of self guilt

"They don't deserve to be tricked but nor do they deserve to die" Radar said

"Do you really think we can stop these bastards?" Matt asked

"I do" Radar said, "But it's going to take time"

"Right...go ahead" Matt said

"Go ahead what?" Radar asked

"Berate me for my meltdown or mock me or do whatever..." He said

She kissed him,

"Shut up"

"What was that for?" Matt asked, stunned and comforted at the same time

"You were distressed, I took a punt, sue me...actually don't I already have a CCJ for a library book fine I never paid" Radar said, Matt grinned, taken by surprise by this girl once again, "Don't tell dad or my Uncle what I did or they'll cap you" She then pointed at the terminal, "I need your pitboy again"

Matt used his pitboy to hack into the terminal,

"He's been moved to...oh come on, the Lincon Memorial Statue...why would he be there?"

"Is there an army on display in a nearby museum?" Radar asked

"No but pleanty of wax...they'll use his knowledge to test the strength of a synth and use the wax. If they can get enough of them working together" Matt started

"He could turn them against Vault Tech" Radar said

"There's an incripted recording here" Matt said,

Suddenly a voice rang out and they couldn't shut it off. They hid as two staff came into the room and shot the terminal before leaving again,

"Catch any of that?" Radar said

"A list, there was a list, robots are composed of 3 main parts, The Controller, Mechanical Parts and Sensors"

"That's not what I heard, the message is in the voice recording" Radar said, "We have to control the mechinical parts and sensors of the robots they create. He clearly doesn't have the program he needs but where would that program be?"

"Oh crap! How're we supposed to find our way over to your father and your Uncle?" Matt exclaimed

"The strap" Radar said

Looking at the strap Radar and Matt found the caved in exit from here to the subway leading to Minors Vault and the entrance. They then fought their way round and then hammered their way through to the subway and followed it round until they were at the entrance to Minors Vault. They then used a number of mines to blow out a wall in the vault where Podray and Craig had dived behind a steel door on hearing the bleeping sound.

The blast took out five guals,

"You're welcome" Matt said as they crawled out from their hiding spot

"You've got to stop doing that" Radar said

"Right back at you!" Craig yelled, "We were behind that wall not a minute ago!"

"So she was a little over zelous with the mines, let's not split hairs" Podray said

"Did I tell you about the car park?" Craig asked

"She's down-sizing" Podray said with a grin, "We have vault dwellers need rescuing, any success with reguards to that lady' husband or our loner vault dweller?"

"Yes and yes, and neither' good but let's get these guys innocent people out of here first" Radar said

"That's my girl" Podray said


	7. Chapter 7

**Chapter Seven**

**Rivit City and the Mirelurk's**

Radar, Matt, Craig and Podray followed Dogmeat around Minor's Vault, killing off mutants and guals and purifying the air in each new, sealed area, if only for their own benefit,

"I'd love to know how you think we're all getting out of here, every subway route leads to another vault" Matt said at one point

"Or the main railway subway...underground" Radar said

"And if it's dark and we haven't found the right exit?" Matt asked

"We find a derailed train everyone can kip in" Podray replied, "Where are we taking these captives, because let's face it that is what they are"

"Rivit City, they'll take them in" Matt said, "We need to go there anyway, I know someone there, who knows everything about Vault Tech"

Radar, Podray, Craig and even Dogmeat stared at him,

"Rivit city is twenty miles back that way!" Radar yelled with a point

"But look at the people we're about to save, doesn't that feel good?" Matt said

At that moment the door to the room housing the still living resident opened and they watched as an alarm went off and every single one of them was gassed,

"Oh crap!" Radar yelled, shooting the mechanic to seal the door so the gas couldn't escape as easily,

Dogmeat was gone, he was searching for oxygen now and wasn't waiting around for anyone,

"That's one smart dog!" Podray said as they chased after him,

Dogmeat followed his nose and went a completely different route, one that kept going up to an entrance that actually made sense for a vault.

Matt scanned the door as Craig tried to stop the awaiting cylinders from going off,

"This door is a folly!" Matt said

Dogmeat was insistant, he clawed, barked and even attacked the door,

"Get this thing open!" Radar said

"I'm trying!" Matt snapped

"Try harder!" Radar snapped back

"I'm not one of your soldiers! I can't shut out what I saw back there!" He said, breaking down

"No one said you had to but this is not the time!" Craig yelled across the room

"Move! I'll do it myself" Radar said

"Radar?! No granades!" Craig said

"How about mines then? Three!" She replied taking one and fixing it to the door

"Radar! This is madness" Craig called

"Two! Back up now!" She called

Two curious mutants came through the door she opened and as they snuck passed and ducked behind metal crates the mutants walked up to the vault exit, they investigated the mines and along with the door were blown apart, affording them an escape from the vault.

Their troubles weren't over once they got to the vault because they came out of a porthole that lead onto a street where people still inhabeted the houses and they found themselves shot at,

They got behind a bombed out car for cover,

"We're not the enemy!" Matt called

"They're not listening!" Radar said before shooting a woman in the arm, "That was a warning, we're passing through, give us no reason to shoot, you'll thank us later, but if you don't stand down your weapons we will kill you all now!"

There was a silence and then Radar, Craig, Matt and Podray heard the sound of guns being lowered, one by one.

When the coast was clear they all climbed out and were met by a man, who clearly thought he was in charge around here,

"We know what that vault meant for everyone down there" He said closing the manhole cover over

"You didn't think to rescue them?" Radar asked

"They signed their own death warrent" The man said

"You're some bollox" Craig said, "Gamer and tag fan is about as far as this soldier goes"

"Where are you going? What's your business here?" The man asked

"Strictly need to know" Podray said

"I need to know, this is my town" The man responded

"Your town? If we don't tell you, you're going to what? Shoot us?" Podray said in question, somehow he made himself look really tall, "A special ops, a spy, a "Woman" and a marine?"

"Uh, no sir, as long as you don't mean us any harm we will say no more, you can pass" The man said

"That's what I thought" Podray said, slapping the man on his back

"Who's the Marine?" Matt whispered as they left

"You" Radar said

"No I'm not" Matt said

"You do something with water" Podray called back, "Sue me...actually don't I can't show my face in most duristictions anymore"

"Why?" Matt asked

"I don't think you want the answer to that question" Podray called back before laughing

"He's winding you up" Radar said

Matt shivered

It was a long haul but eventually they made it to Rivit City. Matt smiled,

"This is where I was born"

"What shall we do with the drunken sailer..." Podray began

"No!" Radar called

"Oh, what is it, a dirty version of the song?" Matt asked raised eyebrow

"He'll scar you for life" Radar said,

Matt lead the way around the ship, towards the lab his father worked in, their workforce had depleted thanks to the Enclave but since the water purification had been a success more people had joined. However their uncouth attitudes hadn't altered much,

"You even think about stealing anything we're going to have problems" One sneered

"One more remark like that I'm blowing this thing up" Radar replied

"No!" Craig, Podray and Matt cried

In the lab they were met a woman called Cavern, due to her being born in one linked to Little Lamplight. She wasn't exactly welcoming either,

"Who've you brought me?" She asked Matt

"What's the weakest part of this God damn ship?" Radar asked, Matt gave her a pleading look, "Asking for a friend"

"Are you threatening us?"

"I'll let you try and work that out" Radar replied, "The Lone vault dweller has been taken to the Lincon Memorial statue, he left a message, the know how to control the sensors of the mechanical. Matt says you know everything about Vault Tech. Did this come across you at any point?"

"It did actually, what's he planning to do? Control the Synths?" She asked

"I don't care what he does with them, we need them to complete our mission, which is to seal every Atom bomb and nuclear powerplant the world over, starting with this one"

"You're helping them Matt?" She asked him

"Yes because the longer those things exist the bigger the risk to everyone and then purifyig the water was for nothing, the other countries around the world didn't deserve this, if one has knowledge to help save the people of another that's right" Matt said

"Where is his program?" Craig asked

"They hid it in the Crying Vault, it's void of children now, only the Mirelurks inhabit. They were moving in just as I was hiding the codes"

"Why did you hide them?" Podray asked, mad now

"I still believe in the positive power of nuclear enegery" She said

"I want the location of the vault, now" He replied, gun in her face

She backed up and then gave him the location of the vault.

The vault itself wasn't that far away, it was in walking distance to be exact. Matt' display within Rivit City had won him some respect,

"It's good to know you don't see nuclear energy to be positive" Podray said

"I've only seen the negatives, the pictures I've seen, this world was beautiful once and full of colour now it's a wasteland because humans thought that unspeakable power should be used to teach others a lesson while portraying to the world a false positive" Matt said, "I don't know what's worse, knowing they lied and knew they were lying, maybe even felt good about it, no reguard for human life or life at all or the fact that they hit that button"

As they reached the vault they were met by two emotionless teenagers with guns. They didn't shoot at Matt, Radar, Craig or Podray, instead they shot at Dogmeat,

Dogmeat didn't attack, this took them aback,

Radar loaded her gun but Podray held out his hand to stop her shooting,

"Who are you? What do you want?" One asked

"It's not you anyway, we need something that's in that vault" Radar called, "But you touch my dog once more you're dead, both of you"

"We thought he was one of them" A teen, who shot called back

"Does he look rabid or zombified to you?" Radar asked,

"We grew up in that vault" The same teen said, "We cried, no one came so we had to learn to fend for ourselves"

"Why're you still hanging around here?" Podray asked

"It's home, if you can clear out the Mirelurks while you're in there we'd be grateful"

"You shoot at my dog and then ask us to do what you can't?" Radar said in question, "I don't care how hard a start you had that's taking the..."

"Put it down to fear" Podray said reasonably, "Have you got any stealth boys?"

"No but we know where you can get some" The teen said, "In the overseer' office, he placed it, rather conviniently at the entrance but we've never been able to crack the code to get inside and the windows are blast proof. We hated this place for years but then look at what was waiting for us out here"

"It's bad now but it won't always be" Matt said

"You're dreaming"

"Better to be a dreamer than someone, who surrenders to the worst senario" Matt replied

The teens let them pass and though he didn't bite, Dogmeat did afford them both a growl before wrapping his teeth around the gun and tossing it.

The teens were stunned by this.

"You've trained him well" Poddray said on the way in, to Radar

"I haven't trained him at all, his last owner was a mine soldier" Radar replied

At the entrance to the vault, which was open there were three Mirelurks to deal with. Radar used three granades and blew them apart but this set alarms off.

They wouldn't have long to get into the overseer' office now.

Craig worked on overriding the password for this one,

"Whenever I hacked into a system before it was pure guesswork, what's the trick here?" Matt asked

"You're looking for a word that means the same thing but also has the same number of letters or actual letters" Radar explained

"You've been learning about computers too?" Podray asked

"Yeah, be prepared for anything right dad?" She replied, they got into the overseer' office and sealed the door as the mirelurk's arrived. Luckily they weren't spotted, "So we get the stealth boy', then what? They only work for a while and we've no idea where they hid the program"

"If we can get the Mirelurk' to leave we'll be fine...oh I have a brilliant idea, but can I do it from this computer?" Podray said in question

Craig laughed. He knew exactly what Podray had in mind, then Radar twigged on,

"You're going to send them to Nuka Vault Tech" Radar said

Podray nodded and winked before getting to work,

"We're still taking the stealth boy' though right?" Craig asked

"Why not?" Podray said

It took a while but Podray got it eventually and afforded them the time they needed to find the program for the Synths.

The realisation of what had happened down here in this vault was difficult for everyone to deal with. There were skeletons of children of all ages dotted around.

One was holding a bear, but the bear seemed to be interfeering with Matt' Pit Boy,

"What's in that bear?" He asked,

Radar grabbed a pool cue and poked it, it didn't go off so Craig grabbed it and stuck his hand in the hole in it's side.

When he took his hand out he had a circuit board,

"Part of the program?"

"Only part" Matt asked disappoined

"Where's the rest of it then?" Radar asked

A man stepped into the room and held up the other half, in his hand was a repellant stick for the molerats,

"I have"

"Dad!" Matt exclaimed


	8. Chapter 8

**Chapter Eight**

**A close call for Dogmeat**

"What are you doing with these people?" James asked

"They're going to help us to purify the water in other countries if I help them bury anything to do with Nuclear power sourses and weapons. We can't do it o our own. The process alone is too dangerous we need to use robots that can't feel to do the task we set for them" Matt replied

"We need that program complete" Radar said, "We do't even know if it'll work now it's been halved"

"It should do" Craig said, "Providing I can find a singe"

"Who owns this program?" James asked

"The loner vault dweller but he's trapped beneath the Lincon memorial, if he's even still alive that is" Radar said

"We need to test this program out first" Matt said

"We need a spare synth, but where do we get one of those?" Podray asked

"I did come across one I an old shopping mall in Springfield" James told them, "It was in a shop of the future"

"This mean you're coming with us?" Matt asked

"No, I'm done with fighting, the water has been purified, that was my job, it's time for us to start over" James said

"Then we do so alone because I'm going with them" Matt said and he took the circuit

Radar was worried for Matt as they left the vault,

"Yo! Did you get rid of the Mirelurk's?" The teen called

"I forgot about you" Radar said, "Yes, they're gone"

"How can we repay you?" The teen asked

"You can't unless you have a singe on your person...or you could just try beig nicer people overall, we have choices in life, we can be arses and blame it on our past or be good and honest and survive the past, accept things we had no control over" Radar said

With that and one last growl from Dogmeat they left, following James' directions to the mall in Springfield.

What James hadn't told them was just how many obsticles stood in their path, between molerats and mutants and raiders,

Radar realised they were all fighting for whatever was in the centre of a pit. A space craft and an alien.

"Oh give me a break" Radar exclaimed

"You do't believe in aliens?" Matt asked

"Oh I believe in aliens, I just don't believe they'd be dumb enough to come here of all places"

Craig clocked something odd about the alien' kneck, took a pen knife and cut into it. It didn't go in far because beneath the green skin was a metal shell,

"He'll do" Craig grinned, "This is an experiment by the government"

"I'm not flying a UFO around the Capital Wasteland" Podray said

"We can take the parts to fix our chopper though and then rescuing the lone vault dweller will be a piece of piss" Craig responded

"We still need a singe for the program" Radar said

"You and Matt go on to the mall, we'll stay here and harvest parts" Craig said

For the rest of the journey to the mall Radar and Matt used their sniper rifles and covered each other, shooting anything that appeared to hostile as it moved towards them.

"You OK?" Radar asked

"You care?" Matt asked

"Define care" Radar said

"You don't want me losing sight of the goal, you don't want me feeling rejected" Matt said

"More of the second than the first" Radar said, "I can see the finish line now, we can relax a little, we get the spare synth working for us and then we can help the lone vault dweller...if we're too late we can still reclaim the synths stolen from him, guarantee there were more than the ones we saw in the first vault, and we can do what we came here to. After that we hold up our end of the bargin while continuing our campaign in other countries out there" Radar said

"Dad and mum had a little fun, I found these notes...I got in the way of his fun, she died after I was born and he took me to Vault 101, where I grew up surrounded by people, who couldn't stand me because of dad, because the overseer had aloud us in from the outside world. There was one girl but I saw her more as a sister and to be honest my feelings changed when I realised her dad wanted me dead, dad caused all that hatred and left me there, he said he thought I'd be safer where I was. When I caught up with him, I thought he'd changed his mind and this was a project we could do together but in reality I was just another hand he could use, all the while patronising me with lines like "I've heard great things about you, I'm proud""

"I'm sorry" Radar said with feeling

"Had anymore thoughts about saving Megaton?" He asked

"Use the synths to move the residents to a clean replica and then blow it to hell where it belongs" Radar told him

Podray and Craig had to take it in turns harvesting bits from the fake UFO because they were attacked by all sorts. They realised each group had to have had a base and a lookout nearby so they used their sharp eyes to locate them and went for the raiders and mutants atop of these instead.

"Where's the chopper?" Podray asked

"About ten miles south of where we are now, we've pretty much managed to do a full circle. The damage to the chopper is minimal, these things will definitely help" Craig said

Radar and Matt found their way into the old shopping mall and for a minute or too they forgot about everything they'd seen so far or why they were there. They past unspoiled but dusty toy shops and clothing stores, a cinema even,

"I never knew any of this stuff" Matt sighed, full of ligit wonder

"I took it for granted" She said then she smiled at a blowse in the window, "That's nice" Then she copped the price, "Not that nice"

"Take it, not like money exists anymore is it?" Matt said

"And lose karma? Not worth it, this place is like a museum" Radar replied

"Hang on you'll take the singe from the hardware store but you won't take the blowse?" Matt asked confused

"I don't need the blowse" Radar replied

Being shot at by raiders brought them back round to why they were there and once they'd been dealt with they found the hardware store,

Most of the shelves had been looted but the item they needed was behind a glass cabinet. Radar used a screwdriver to prize it open then took the circuits over to the counter on the other side of the store. It took some time to get it to work but she did eventually and after a careful hour or two she had the circuit in one piece.

"What do we do with this now?" Matt asked, "Put it straight into the synth?"

"No, we need to sync up the circuits of each synth to this one once we've added it to our nearest available terminal, if it's successful then we just need to make sure we take this circuit with us wherever we go, so that when the time comes we can control all the other synths we need" Radar told him

"Cleaver" Matt said with a nod

"It's bloody complicated and long winded is what it is" Radar remarked

With darkness fast approaching Radar and Matt descided it was probably safer to stay where they were so after making their way up onto the roof and doing a full sweep, using a torch as code to let Craig and Radar know they were OK they found a department store with beds in them to sleep in. They raided the store room for blankets and duvets that were still wrapped up in plastic.

They then built a forte for themselves out of sofas and torches and duvets and blankets. It made Radar feel like a kid again and miss her cousins back in the vault in London.

"This is cosy" Matt grinned

It really was,

"I used to do this all the time with my cousins, you really were born at the wrong time. There's a beach in London, not that people realise. It only appears for about four hours each day, people go down there and sculpt for pennies. In the summer months we'd go to this little village in Kent that had a river in sections, we'd have a picnic...dinner in a basket, and then play in the water all afteroon or we'd go to the beach" Radar told him, "I always felt safer in a homemade forte, don't know why"

"You sleep first, I'll guard" He said

"No need, we've got Dogmeat, the king of the castle, trust me he'll tug and bark if something' up" Radar said

The night passed by peacefully,

Radar woke up to find Matt close and a protective arm across her,

"Excuse me?" She said as he opened his eyes, "Comfy there?"

He sat up,

"I was worried about you in the night so I thought I should...get a little closer" Then responding to the look on her face he added, "Shut up"

"You got scared didn't you?" She teased

"Shut up"

"I don't want to leave this forte" She said

Dogmeat whined,

They exited the forte and found the poor dog struggling to breathe, a needle in his side and a very pleased raider across the room. Before he could react to Radar, she shot him in the neck and proceeded to tend to Dogmeat while Matt did a sweep of the store,

"What was he injected with?" Matt asked

"Blood thinners" Radar said

She wasn't calm this time, she was upset,

"Come on, focus, what can we do for him? Think like a soldier" Matt said

Dogmeat looked Radar in the eyes and a blood drop ran out of his nose,

"Blood transfusion!" Radar snapped, "I need to give him a blood pack!" Then as she raided her backpack she said, "Matt, I need tubing, go to the drinks section of the cafe on the next floor up and get me the tubing from the fizzy drinks, hurry!" Matt ran as fast as he could, up to the next floor as Radar comforted her now stricken pet. Dogmeat whined again as blood dripped out of his nose again, "You're a soldier Dogmeat, we've got this"

Matt arrived back with the tubing and Radar got to work on saving her beloved dog,

"Wait, this is human blood" Matt said as Radar hooked the dog up and hug the blood bag off the hook of a coat rack,

"It's all I have" Radar said, "Law of the battlefield, use what you have to hand and make it work for you, he has a cut on his paw and he's bleeding from the nose, which means he impacted with something as he was injected with the blood thinners, he needs red blood cells. Once I've stopped the bleeding then I can scan him for internal injuries and use a stempack on him or opperate if I have to"

The wait was a long one. Once the bleeding had stopped they carried him into the forte and watched him like hawks.

Dogmeat was truly the most beautiful dog Matt had ever come across, like a wolf almost, white, grey and black, alsation/husky cross with piercing green eyes.

"Come on soldier" Matt said stroking Dogmeat' ears

His heart beat faster as Dogmeat fell asleep,

Radar and Matt succame to tiredness in the end and fell asleep where they sat and when they woke up in the morning they found what they thought was Dogmeat raiding Radar' backback for treats, full of life, like a little puppy but adult sized.

Then they realised there were two of them,

Dogmeat' eyes snapped open and he eyeballed the dog raiding the treats,

He limped a little and greeted the other dog,

"Uh oh" Matt said, "No girls Dogmeat"

Dogmeat looked at Matt with a wounded expression,

"Want her to come with us?" Radar asked

Dogmeat barked happily


	9. Chapter 9

**Chapter Nine**

**The Plan Works**

Podray and Craig were getting worried about Radar and Matt, having received no word or codes from them in the last 24 hours, so they decided to take all they had plus the synth, with them, and headed for the mall in Springfield.

The journey there was a clear one for them as Radar and Matt had taken out any threats on the way over themselves and none of the people or mutants riding with the ones tht had attacked had gone to the sights to find them.

"Radar?! Matt?!" Craig called out as they arrived

"Don't call out, what if there are raiders in the area?" Podray scolded

They heard two dogs barking and were more than surprised when Dogmeat and the female dog that had found them came bounding down the non moving escalators,

"I'm seeing things" Craig shook his head

"No there are two Dogmeat" Podray said

"Actually that's one Dogmeat and a stray, that doesn't want to kill us" Radar said as she and Matt joined them all

"Why no word?" Podray asked, dropping everything and examining the female dog

"Someone injected Dogmeat with blood thinners" Radar said, "I gave him a human blood pack, it worked...I know we have the puppy perk but I don't want to lose him"

Craig and Podray are stunned,

"Maybe he'll turn into a man once a month" Craig blurted

Podray laughed whole heartedly,

"This female is in remarkable condition, she has to have an owner nearby" Podray said

"She has no chip" Matt said, "We checked"

"Oh well, Dogmeat seems to like her I guess she stays" Podray said, "We brought everything we took, including the synth...well, the robot alien at least. Let me have the circuit"

Radar handed the circuit over,

"We need to see if he works first" She said

Matt helped Podray with the parts taken from the fake UFO and Radar helped Craig to bring the synth/robot alien up to the hardware store, where they then got to work on fixing it. It was tricky but Matt really came into his own with the tinkering and eventually cracked it.

The robot sat up and they backed up,

"We, come in pieces" It said

Radar scoffed,

"We're going to have to do something about it's speech" She said

"It doesn't need speech" Craig said, "It just needs to do as it's told"

Something came over the robot and suddenly it broke bits of itself off and went for them.

Radar, Craig, Matt and Podray got split up as they all made a run for it.

Dogmeat and protected his new girlfriend and went for the main body. The body of the robot didn't attack as it didn't register Dogmeat as a person.

Radar ran into a clothing store to get away from a hand that was making its way, very quikly towards her.

She got distracted by a jacket,

"Ooh" She exclaimed, Then she saw the hand, grabbed the coat, threw it over the hand, stamped on it and dashed out, hiding behind the wall and then shooting the moving jacket with her rifle for good measure. Her pit boy flashed, "You lost Karma" she read aloud, "For what?"

She tapped at her pit boy and it read; for putting a hole in the jacket.

The jacket had now reached her so she kicked it over the metal bars to the lower section of the mall before turning back to find the others.

Podray found himself in a computer shop. He used a bobby pin to get into the back office where he found a terminal,

"Perfect!" He grinned and he got to work on hacking it.

Craig was being chased back and forfth between rows of seats in the mall cinema by a leg. If it had been anyone else it were after he'd have laughed his head off. He jumped over seats and ran across them, jumped onto the floor, up onto the stage but it was no use the robot foot had him over a barrel,

"Can we talk about this!?" Craig yelled before bringing himself into check, "What am I saying?"

Radar found herself in the department store she and Matt had been staying, on the off chance. She only found him because she heard his screams.

Matt had gone back to the forte for supplies and an arm had found it's way through their beds and sofas and covers.

Radar had to be honest, as dangerous as this situation was, for each part had a gun, that fired at off intervals, the sight of Matt panicking and trying to get out of the forte, then running towards her with a blanket over his head was pretty funny.

He screamed again when Radar used her gun to stunn the arm past him, she then released him from the blanket,

"I needed ammo...I didn't get the ammo" He breathed

"I've got ammo, I don't know where Uncle Craig got to but I have a hunch about dad" She told him

Craig was now knackered, he lay back and tried to hide but the leg found him. In a fit of rage he kicked it across the room and it smashed through the cinema screen, affording him the time to get ouf of this room at least.

Radar and Matt found Podray in the office of the computer store, still working on the terminal. He had just hacked into it and was now adding the program to it so he could try and contol the alien robot.

"Will it work?" Radar asked

"It needs part of the robot/synth we want to control" He told her

"The same metal you mean?" Matt asked

"Yes" Podray replied

"So technically we can control anything made from that metal, we could fool mutants and raiders by flying choppers using a termal cetral to them while we use a different one to actually reach the Lincon Memorial" Radar said

"There's plenty here we could use to fix the chopper you used to get here" Podray said in agreement

"I'll go back and get something from the fake UFO" Matt said

"Be careful" Podray said

Craig was crawling along the top floor of the Mall, he could hear the foot trying to lick it's way out of the cinema.

He got to the escalator and let it take him down to the bottom just as Matt was passing by.

Craig reached out, grabbed his leg and brought Matt down,

"Hey!" Matt cried out

"Piggy bank" Craig breathed

"What's that?" Matt asked

"Carry me!" He snapped, Matt carried him on his back, "Wait, where are you going?"

"Back to where we started, Podray needs the parts you took from the UFO, he and Radar have a plan"

"Drop me!" He demanded

What Matt and Craig didn't expect was to find Dogmeat having the time of his life ripping into the robot part, that wasn't doing anything to him while the female dog just lay on the floor with a bored look on it's face.

Craig wheezed with laughter and took his phone out to record it, then used this destraction to sneak the parts from the UFO out of the store and over to the computer shop.

"Dogmeat! Lady! Come!" Criag called on the way out,

Dogmeat followed loyally and the other dog, now named Lady, came running after,

Matt and Craig were still laughing as they came into the office with the parts,

"What's so funny?" Podray asked as he took them and singed them to the program,

Craig showed him the video and Radar stroked Dogmeat, impressed,

"Who's taking after mummy then?" She said to him as he put his paws up to show affection

"He hasn't blow anything up yet" Podray said

"Give him time" Craig said

After a few short minutes that felt like an eternity Podray got the program to work for him. They left the shop and watched the body parts that had cut themselves off return to the robot. The robot then made it's way over to the computer shop and stood in front of Podray,

"How may I be of service?" It asked

"I need you to fix 5 choppers using one the metal you're made from and one with copper and then I need you to bring the copper amended chopper here and land it on the roof of the mall" Podray told him

The robot took the parts and the copper and left.

"How will we know it's worked?" Radar asked

"If he hasn't made a weapon out of..." Podray began

"I will make a weapon of these parts" The robot said

Podray went to react but Craig covered his mouth.

Night came and there was no sign of the robot so Podray and Craig followed Radar, Matt, Dogmeat and Lady to the forte, which they made bigger and better and sat around with torches to light the space,

"Why is this so satisfying to me?" Podray wondered aloud

"Something fun and innocent in War but serves a practical purpose" Radar said, "I am a little worried about the fact that we haven't come across anymore raiders though"

"Maybe they don't expect there to be anything left so why bother? The schools and the police stations and garages seem to be the thing for them" Craig said

"Not so much the garages, too many people went in and never came out again, a lot of them hide vaults you see. People tempted to retreat there thought again after obsering the place, the numbers of people going in as apposed to coming out"

At that moment they heard a mechanical walk and they all crawled out of the forte from different angles, the dogs included.

It was the robot and he had a weapon of metal and copper in his hand, that seemed to have a neon cap in the middle,

"The fuck?" Matt asked before he could stop himself

"You're weapon sir, care to test it out?" The robot said, holding it out for anyone,

Radar grinned,

"No" Podray said with a point before taking the weapon and shooting a mannequin. The mannequi blew apart and he stepped back in shock, "God damn!"

"He could not be located" The robot said

"I hear that" Matt replied

"I did as you asked and took the liberty of added markers to your terminal so you can control them all from there...I am afraid that someone will have to stay here to do this, if you shut me down I will turn" The robot said

Everyone looked at each other,

"We know how to create a new program, you take that and I'll get you to the Lincon Memorial" Podray said, then in response to Radar' expression, "No emotion, you know your task, now go do it"

Radar hugged her dad and then straightened her expression. Podray hugged her back and they swayed on the spot for a minute.

Craig eyeballed Matt,

"Are you crying?!" He asked him astonished

"Shut up" Matt replied

"My God! You actually have water squirting out of your eyes!" Craig said as though observing a strange animal,

"Shut up" Matt said

"Podray! Look at this!" Craig continued

Radar laughed


	10. Chapter 10

**Chapter Ten**

**The Birth of Atom**

Dogmeat left with Radar, Craig and Matt while Lady stayed behind with Podray. Podray used the computer to control the choppers in the surrounding areas and the missiles that had been equipt to them to afford Radar, Craig and Matt the time they needed to reach the copper amended chopper and get out of there.

Any houses still standing in the area got blown apart as did the choppers and then the mutants and raiders as they ventured close to capture their non existant victims.

All the while the robot stared straight ahead, facing away from Podray, eyes now red instead of white. Lady growled lowly at it, not sure what this robot was up to or why it had just turned.

"There's something odd about this reading to the West" A Nuka Vault Tech expert was saying

"It's probably a bird, they do still exist, aleit they're rare...where are the other synths, the one from Loner' vault?" Cavern asked

"They were destroyed by Matt and his friends" The Nuka Vault Tech expert replied

"They'll work even if their parts are detached, up the frequency!" Cavern replied

"There's movement coming from the Loner' vault!" Matt called, looking at his pit boy

"Reinforcements?" Radar suggested

"Not for us...Radar I think the robot has turned" Matt called nervously

He showed Radar the pit boy,

"Someone else has taken control. They're calling the broken parts, dad's in trouble" Radar said

"We're not turning around, your dad is special ops; I know him well enough he already has a plan in place"

Podray looked over at the robot and at Lady growling and clicked for the dog to slowly back up towards him. He then tapped at the computer and acted like he knew nothing, as the body parts of the synths from Loner' Vault were making their way across the Captial wasteland.

As Lady reached Podray he hit another button and a chopper came through the ceiling and Podray set off a missle to blast the robot across the mall and through the wall on the other side, cutting of the signal being used by Nuka Vault Tech.

Next he went outside to where ther broken robot lay and took out the eyeball. He took the eyeball back to the forte and got a broken laptop working again, then used it's parts to create his own pit boy. He used this pit boy to scan the eyeball,

"So you were security...if they can control the synths in the Loner' vault then you had to have had family in that vault" Podray thought aloud.

He sent a message through on his pit boy.

Matt got a shock when the message came through,

"Listen, Vault Tech can only control the synths that have a body part with the DNA of someone connected to someone from one of the Vaults. The loner wasn't the first dweller of Loner' vault, he was the last" Radar, Craig and Matt shook their heads, "They sent a whole town worth of people down and killed them then left eyes and teeth around along with rooms full of twisted metal they hoped the Loner Vault Dweller would use to create the synths.

I've updated your pit boys so you can program the right synths, use them to destroy the others while you deal with his abductors, then you need to shut Vault Tech down, once you have full control of the other synths that should be a piece of cake"

"Son of a bitch" Radar said

"OK, we have the program we just need to find a way into the Lincon Memorial" Craig said

They landed on the roof of the building before the Lincon Memorial. It was badly damaged, in fact it was impossible to tell what it had been used for at all now.

The second they did they were shot at,

Radar, Craig and Matt climbed out the other side of the chopper and used it for cover before throwing granades through the hole in the roof, not knowing what was shooting at them.

This made everything unstable and Radar, Craig and Matt had to back up to the edge of the roof as the whole thing, chopper included colapsed in.

"Not to state the obvious here but how are we getting down?" Matt asked

Radar looked down and then looked at Craig,

"We can do this" She said

Matt looked down, there were bits of furniture, walls, Mutant bodies, raiders and synths, bits of floor, bits of stairs. If they were really careful they could make it down to the bottom.

"This is stupidly dangerous" Craig said, "Let's do it"

Carefully, bit by bit, minute by minute they climbed, crawled through and shuffled and shimmied their way down, some of the Mutants were still alive but not in a position to attack. Radar and Matt stole their flamers and the fuel to go with them and carried on making their way down.

They nearly got crushed by falling masonary a few times after squeezing through certain gaps but eventually they got to the bottom and a large enough crouch space to get outside,

"I hope our granades didn't kill the Loner Vault Dweller after all that" Radar said

She, Craig and Matt walked around this massive memorial, the only thing missing was Lincon' nose,

"Wasn't he a vampire slayer?" Matt asked

"Lincon? Yeah" Craig replied, "How are we getting inside?"

There was no entrance here but beyond was a massive shallow pond. Radar looked at Craig,

"That had to have been cleaned in it's day" She said

"There must be tunnels underneath, they might lead us to what's beneath the statue" Craig grinned and with that he made a dash towards the pond.

Radar and Matt followed.

They hurried the entire distance to the other side and a broken podium, they then moved the podium to reveal a manhole cover.

They removed this and found a ladder. They were about to go down it when they heard guals climbing up. Radar used granades to sort them out and the waited for the smoke to clear, kicking body parts of guals out of the way as she climbed down the ladder.

Craig and Matt followed her down and the three of them stood shoulder to shoulder as they scoped the place out. It was clear, this made no sense but they took it anyway and began their search for the Loner Vault Dweller.

The Loner Vault Dweller was weak, he was tied to an old boiler that steamed, he had scars and burns and bruises all over him and at first when he heard Radar, Craig and Matt he thought he was hearing things,

"He's dead by now" Matt said, losing hope

Then they heard a faint tapping,

"Shut up, listen to that" Craig demanded

"Help me...someone" The Loner Vault Dweller cried, Radar, Craig and Matt found a way into the room and immediately began helping the man, Craig and Matt untied him and Radar gave him a stempack, "Thank you, thank you, whoever you are but how did you find me?"

"Never mind how we found you, where are the bastards that put you down here?" Radar wanted to know,

"Long gone, they left me for dead but they did leave guards, I heard a series of explosions a while ago but I thought I was going mad" He said

"That was us, you're beneath the Lincon Memorial, my Uncle and I and this man with us needed your synths to entomb and destroy every Atom bomb and splitter, anything driven by nuclear power to prevent something like this happening again" Radar told him, "Someone out there realised what was going on with the Master and the Mutants and Vault Tech, they swapped out the nuclear bombs for normal bombs and they are what destroyed London"

"That was me" The Loner Vault Dweller said, "I was brought in to work on the computers at a secret United States base when I heard two mutants in biohazard, they never took them off. They thought no one could understand them but I could understand them, my dad had dealings with them and the Enclave, I swapped the bombs over, thought I was safe, then I was rushed into this vault, told the rest had already arrived, more would come. After two days I realised I was on my own. I started looking around and used my skills to build a synth, just for company at first and then the Vault Tech staff started to play games, I used the synths to fight back but some of them they seemed to have control over"

"Yeah we know, some of the body parts were real, like the eyes and the teeth, we re-programmed your program, if you know where we could get new synths we can control that would be great" Radar said

"Well you know" Began the Loner Vault Dweller, "If Vault Tech can control synths with human body parts we can do the same with Mutants, kill two birds with one stone"

Everyone smiled.

Over the next few weeks the Loner Vault Dweller got strong enough to help Radar, Craig and Matt sift through broken metal and plastic to make a whole work force of synths with Mutant eyes. Even Dogmeat helped.

They had to split the work force into three, a group to infiltrate the Master' layer and plant a program that could send messages to the Mutant' brains to stop working. A second group to infiltrate Nuka Vault Tech and destroy it from the inside plus every interlinked Vault and any gual, glowing or otherwise and sympathiser with it.

The last group built a shiny new copper Megaton, slowly moving the sleeping residents from the old one in their sleep before encasing it and the leader of Atom in a block of concrete. Then from a safe distance, on the balcony of a transmission tower stood Radar, Dogmeat and Matt,

Matt hit the the button and from the cameras now within that concrete block they could see Megaton ripped apart,

"You just lost Karma" Matt joked

"You pushed the button" Radar said

"The first of many" Matt said, "We can do this"

Below, at the front of the tower Craig and Podray were waiting, alongside Lady and The Loner Vault Dweller,

"What are they doing up there?" Craig asked, getting impatient, Podray made a mock kissing sound and joking grabbed Craig chin, "Get off!" He said, howling with laughter,

"Pucker up blondie" He said

"Sod off!" He laughed

Podray laughed and backed off,

The Loner Vault Dweller shook his head and smiled,

Back up on the balcony Dogmeat was staring at Lady longingly, he then looked at Matt,

"Go on Dogmeat, go get your girl"

Dogmeat barked happily and bounded down the fire steps after Lady.

"I just thought, by being the destruction of Atom we are Atom. Their end is the birth of Atom" Radar said

**Three years later: **Matt and Radar sat on the bank of the river she told him all about, while her cousins played in the river with their mother, Craig and Podray debated about which army job is better and Radar' mother sat between them, shaking her head,

Lady tried to keep her puppies in line while Dogmeat sat beside Radar looking proud.

"So this is peace?" Matt said

"For now" Radar said

**The End**


End file.
